Does Your Perception of Your Brand Match Reality?

“Our clients love us.”“We’re an innovator in the market.”“We’re a highly trusted brand.”“This is a natural extension of our brand.”

Is your brand being perceived as you believe?

Often times internal perceptions about where a brand stands in the marketplace influences large corporate initiatives from brand expansions to product launches. Yet many times these business decisions are based on assumptions, formulated via information from limited sources. So how do you expand your understanding of your consumer brand perception? A brand audit. A brand audit allows you to gain insight into your current status of your brand through the eyes of your customers. Matches your brand aspirations up against the perceptions of your customers and the market. And D can help shape and define a way forward for your brand and your organization.

Here are 5 signs that it’s time to consider doing a brand audit:

You believe you know your brand better than anyone else.—If you’ve heard this phrase thrown around by your internal team, you’re dangerously-too-close to your own brand. The reality is you may know how you like to present your brand better than anyone, but that doesn’t mean you know how that presentation is perceived in the market.

You recently conducted your own brand audit. Here’s a funny thing about people—social norms have taught most of us to be polite, you know the expression “If you don’t have something nice to say…” The result is that rarely will people tell you the whole truth about how they feel about your brand, especially in a one-on-one setting.

You’re thinking about expanding your brand offerings.— A company may invest thousands of dollars in research to identify a void in the market, yet fail to ask the most crucial question before taking action—Do customers believe our brand is qualified to fill that void?

The numbers don’t lie, but you don’t know what they’re saying.—If you’ve seen a recent decline in your sales, but you’re not sure what is driving that decline there may be an underlying brand perception issues that is eroding your consumers trust.

Your brand is facing adversity in the market.—This adversity may come in the former of new competitor, a shift in consumer behavior or a change in brand perception. Knowing the cause of the adversity is a portion of the challenge but more importantly how can your brand weather the storm and come out the other side on top is essential.

Being self-aware as a brand is key to being a successful one. When you’re aware of how your brand is perceived you’re able to focus your efforts on the most viable opportunities, and maybe more importantly ignore the temptation of those that are not.